Missing a bone? A Chinese startup’s got a fix for you – it uses 3D bioprinting to build implantable bones, and is preparing to enter human trials, 3dprint reports.
The company’s now looking for investors to help hasten its path to the market – since human trials are underway and will continue into June. This kind of technology could have applications in conditions, like bone cancers, that rely on bone grafts from cadavers.
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
After five years of R&D, Xi’an Particle Cloud Advanced Materials Technology Co. has wrapped up animal testing at the Department of Orthopedic Surgery in Xijin Hospital. It uses a process called filament-free printing to build out complex bone microstructures that are biodegradable. When tested in rabbits, the 3D printed bone almost immediately began growing new cells on its surface, 3dprint says.
“[The company’s product] can provide clinical patients with customized biodegradable 3D-printed artificial bone with physicochemical properties and biomimetic structure according to required size and shape of bone defects as well as inner pore of bones,” Jess Li from Xi’an Particle Cloud told 3dprint.
There is a lot of working going on in this field – from startups like EpiBone that take a patient’s stem cells to grow their own bone grafts (company’s tagline? “Grow your own bone.”) to those Cal State Long Beach students that just won seed money to follow a similar path as Xi’an Particle Cloud.
